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ClarionJanuary 2020Circulation 3500
UpcomingEventsCalendarGreater Colesville Citizens Association, PO Box 4087, Colesville, MD 20914
Upcoming GCCA Board meetings willbe held at 7:30 pm at the EpiscopalChurch of the Transfiguration, 13925New Hampshire Ave. Meetings are inthe room under the sanctuary and areopen to the public. For informationcontact GCCA President Dan Wilhelm301-384-2698 or email address [email protected]
February
2 Groundhog Day
11 GCCA Board Mtg., 7:30 pm
(see directions below)
17 Presidents’ Day
26 Ash Wednesday
1
January
14 GCCA Board Mtg., 7:30 pm
(see directions below)
20 Martin Luther King Day
www.GreaterColesville.org
March
8 Daylight Saving Time begins
Turn clocks one hour forward
10 GCCA Board Mtg., 7:30 pm
(see directions below)
19 First Day of Spring
GCCA Officers and Chairs: President Dan Wilhelm, Vice President Marguerite Raaen, TreasurerMark Pankow, Recording Secretary David Michaels, Clarion Editor Nancy Laich
President’s Message
Happy 2020, Everyone!
First, a reminder that our monthly GCCA meetings are open toeveryone. They provide a means to learn what is going on, howyou can help in our community, and an opportunity to express youropinion on issues we discuss. I encourage you to attend.
To balance our budget, I continue to ask people to become paidmembers, which is still only $10 per person, per year. If possible,please donate an additional $25, $50 or more to help GCCA payfor the cost of producing and mailing this newsletter.
I received a copy of a press release from the county that showsthe results of a residential survey. Overall, the results were positivewith 80-90% of the responses. Interestingly though, only 57% sup-port the direction that the county is taking. Apparently the few neg-ative areas are a priority for people. The main negative areas weretransportation, affordable housing, and affordable child care. Frommany other things I have heard, I’m sure the results vary substan-tially depending upon where one lives in the county. I think the per-ception is worse in Eastern Montgomery County. I often hear thatpeople feel that our area has been neglected for a long time.
There are a number of us who live here who have been workingto improve the area. In past Clarions we have had articles aboutadding a variety of jobs (many well-paid) with the White Oak Med-ical Center and the planned Viva White Oak development. Wehave talked about Bus Rapid Transit, improved local bus and anumber of road, bikeway and walkway improvements. This Clarionhas several articles about ongoing construction at the hospital andtransportation in Hillandale.
While we have not said much about it, the county has improvedthe services in our area, especially for low income residents.
Continued on page 3
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President’s Message One often hears that the median household income in the county is $99,000. We don’t hear as muchabout the 127,000 adult residents who face obstacles related to low income. Did you know that lessthan 50% of black and Hispanic families earn a living wage? There is a pocket of low income familiesin our area east of US29 (the map that follows shows the median income by census tract). Thecounty indicates that approximately 1 in 7 adults struggle with low literacy skills, with the ability toread and speak English being the primary one. There are two articles dealing with this subject: adulteducation (pg. 4), and services available at the east county government center (pg.3).
There is also an article about the county tax revenue falling (pg. 4). Growth in low income jobs com-pared to good paying jobs is likely the primary reason for this. The Council has recently adopted astrategy to address this situation, called the Economic Development Platform, which is also discussedon pg. 6.
Over 50% of the county taxes pay for education. We often question how well MCPS is using thosefunds. MCPS just completed a system wide analysis that looked at three issues. Two of these relatedto the use of taxes: building utilization and proximity (percentage of students not assigned to the near-est school). The third issue relates to diversity (low income and racial). Other studies have shown thatchildren learn better when there is a good mix of students in both race and income. The recent MCPSstudy results are summarized in an article on page 5.
Median Income by Census Tract in Eastern Montgomery County(To some extent, tract boundaries are along US29, New Hampshire Ave and E Randolph)
East County Government Center Services.
Over the last few years, a number of services have been added at the East County Government Center, lo-cated at 3300 Briggs Chaney Road, just east of US29. The services include the following:
• MobileMed Clinic: for underinsured adults
• Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS): includes access to health, food, utility, emergency, literacy, immigrant and senior services
• Montgomery County Bar Foundation Pro Bono Legal Clinic• Sheppard Pratt ( formally Family Services): Helps access to other services, especially DHHS
services• Charles Gilchrist Immigrant Resource Center• Montgomery College: Offers education and workforce development classes, etc. A number of
community members are working to expand this effort.• WorkSource Montgomery: Includes the “Helping Individuals Reach Employment (HIRE) Cen
ter”• Manna Food Center: food distribution. They recently opened a new location on Tech Rd at Old
Columbia Pike.
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The next issue of the Clarion will be mailed in March2020. The deadline for submitting news and photo-graphs is Friday, February 21, 2020.
Contact Editor Nancy Laich at 301-412-5301, [email protected]
For inquiries about advertising in the Clarion, pleaseemail Dave Michaels at [email protected]
Montgomery County Tax Revenue Forecast FallsThe County ended FY19 (ie June 2019) with fewer resources than forecast in March. The result is
that FY20 began with $60.1 million less in reserves than approved. FY21 revenues are estimated todecrease by 0.2% from FY20. The County’s total revenues for FY21 are expected to be $99.8 millionless than the June approved fiscal plan. Department of Finance (DOF) projections for FY22-FY25show that the revenue estimates are increasingly negative compared with the prior estimates. Theseestimates will next be updated in March, which is when the council starts taking up the FY21 budget.
The negative estimates are new to the Council and Executive, but reflect what a number of peoplehave been saying for a number of years. Last May the county balanced the budget by underfundingretiree health care payments, which the rating agencies criticized, and thus this tactic cannot be usedagain if the county wants to retain its AAA credit rating. The forecast means that the county has twopossible choices, both bad: increase taxes or reduce the amount spent on services. We have seenreports that show that the job growth has been poor and that many of the increase in total jobs arelow wage ones, which pay little if any taxes. The second item is that the Executive branch has failedto actively address the need for economic development in East County, especially good paying jobs.(The council is supportive.)
We have been pushing for non-residential development in East County for the better part of the lastdecade, but the Executive Branch has been making decisions that keep putting roadblocks in theway. We have been able to overcome them so far but each such effort takes many months. As a re-sult, a number of good opportunities have been missed. The major issue that remains is the high costof impact taxes and cost of required transportation improvements. Just these costs and the cost toobtain Planning Board approval can exceed $100,000 for a single family house in our area or about20% the typical price of a house here. By comparison the cost in Bethesda is much lower – closer to$50,000- which according to Google has a median price of $1,140,000 (around 4% the typical price).This same situation applies to non-residential development. That high cost often means the cost todevelop here is not justified compared to other locations.
Adult English Education.
A good number of foreign born adults living in the area
actually have college level training but they are not able tofind good paying jobs. There are two primary reasons: lim-ited ability with reading and speaking English and employ-ers’ readiness to accept foreign education certificates.(About 1/3 of the adults county-wide are foreign born andabout 40% speak other than English as their primary lan-guage.)
The Montgomery County Coalition for Adult English Lit-eracy (MCAEL) offers a number of classes throughout theCounty in English and on other support topics. Mostclasses are free or charge a small fee. More informationcan be found at www.mcael.org
The boundary analysis on pg. 5 is a goodpiece of data for an actual boundary study, whichGCCA and the PTA’s in our area have been en-couraging MCPS to undertake for the last year.We have contended that MCPS needs to developa plan to accommodate students from planneddevelopments, especially for Viva White Oak,which would otherwise overwhelm some schoolsusing the current assignments.
In addition, many of the schools need renova-tion because the buildings are old. MCPS has notyet committed to the study. The Viva White Oakdeveloper has agreed to work with MCPS on thiseffort.
Northeast Consortium Boundary Study
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Mont. Public Schools Conduct Analysis of School BoundariesMontgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) hired a consultant to collect data relative to three
major issues for each of the 208 public schools in the county: utilization, diversity, and proximity of theassigned school to where people live. The purpose of the study is NOT to redraw school or clusterboundaries. MCPS is having six community meetings to present the data from Phase 1, which theyprovided in a 53 page handout. Phase 2 will extend into spring 2020, and test ideas for metrics. ThePhase 1 handout and other information can be found at https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/de-partments/publicinfo/boundary-analysis/.60
Following are several things we learned at one of the meetings and from the handout.General: MCPS currently has 208 schools. In 1972 there were almost as many schools (203), but 60were closed in the 1972-1983 period due to a baby bust when the MCPS population fell sharply. Fouradditional schools will be built or reopened by 2025. While not stated at the meeting, the objectivepeak population per school is higher today than it was in 1972.
Utilization: MCPS strives for the student population to be between 80-100% of school capacity.
Number of East County schools shown in (# EC ).
Schools above 120% are placed in moratorium for new development unless some measure isplanned to bring the student population down. It should be noted that many of the over-fill students donot come from new development, but from turn-over of existing houses.
Diversity: The study is looking at socio-economic and racial measures, but only the former was in-cluded in the booklet. The study used Free and Reduced Meals (FARMs) as the measure. Many ofthe families receiving FARMs are black and Hispanic. Some 1/3 of the residents in our area are for-eign born, and many of them are on FARMs. It should be realized that a good number of blacks areforeign born, from Africa or elsewhere.
Proximity: This indicates the percentage of students not assigned to the nearest school, not consid-ering consortium selection in high schools. Data was not provided as to the extra distance or time stu-dents must travel per school. Traveling an extra minute is one thing but traveling an extra half hour issomething else.
<80% 80-100% 100-120% >120%ES 16 (1 EC) 46 (3 EC) 51 (5 EC) 22 (6 EC)MS 3 23 (2 EC) 12 (3 EC) 2 HS 0 12 (2 EC) 11 (1 EC) 2
<20% 20-40% 40-60% 60-80% >80%ES 33 37 (3 EC) 18 (3 EC) 28 (7 EC) 19 (2 EC)MS 7 10 7 (1 EC) 11 (2 EC) 5 (2 EC)HS 5 4 7 (1 EC) 7 (2 EC) 2
<25% 25-50% 50-75% >75% Average & Range(% of students)
ES 45 (8 EC) 51 (5 EC) 20 13 (2 EC) 37 (94 to 0)MS 12 3 (1 EC) 12 (2 EC) 3 (1 EC) 45 (100 to 0)*HS 8 10 (1 EC) 6 (1 EC) 1 (1 EC) 38 (76 to 38)
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Montgomery Co. Council Economic Development PlatformIn November the council passed a resolution supporting an Economic Development Platform that is focused on business
development, housing, transportation and workforce development. The Economic Development Platform Resolution is a guid-ing document that identifies a thriving and diversified economy, greater innovation, racial equity and social justice, and envi-ronmental sustainability as desired outcomes. The goal of the resolution is to institutionalize a strategic economic frameworkthat enables a focused and disciplined implementation of the County’s economic initiatives. The framework is illustrated below.The Council must now turn the different aspects of the framework into real legislation.
Thrive Montgomery 2050 - General Plan.The Planning Department is updating the 1964 General Plan, which they are calling Thrive Montgomery 2050. The
overriding question is how to plan for a future Montgomery County, with anticipated growth of more than 200,000 peoplewithin the next 25-30 years. The goal is that the county will be a thriving place with a strong economy, fairness and opportu-nity for a dynamic and very diverse population, and environmental resiliency to address the threats of climate change.
It is important to recognize that the footprint of development in the county is largely in place. Most of the land is alreadybuilt upon, is already planned for development, or is part of our critical open space – including parkland, the Agricultural Re-serve and environmentally sensitive areas. There are few vacant and greenfield properties remaining.
The Planning Department framework consists of three main themes or outcomes: economic health, community equityand environmental resilience. The proposed issues, which overlap and relate to these three primary outcomes are organ-ized into eight categories:
1. Complete Communities 5. Affordability2. Connectedness 6. Healthy and Sustainable Environment3. Diverse Economies 7. Diverse and Adaptable Growth4. Safe and Efficient Travel 8. Culture and Design
The Staff provided the Planning Board on 12/12 with a report, which includes many of the issues we have been trying toaddress for a number of years. The report can be found at https://montgomeryplanningboard.org/agenda-item/december-12-2019/. The next step is for the staff to draft polices that address the issues.
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FDA Science Update
FDA approved on Nov 15 the first duodeno-scope with a sterile disposable elevator compo-nent that will reduce the number of parts thatneed to be cleaned and disinfected betweenuses. It has been difficult to clean such equip-ment and to know that it was adequately cleaned.By replacing this part, the risk of infection will belowered. It is difficult to adequately clean a num-ber of devices, and to address this issue, FDAand White Oak Medical Center have been collab-orating to find solutions.
FDA approved on Nov 25 a new medicine forthe treatment of sickle cell disease, a debilitatinginherited blood disorder in which red blood cellsare abnormally shaped and thus restrict the bloodflow and limit the oxygen delivery to the body’stissues.
FDA approved on Oct 21 Trikafta as the firsttriple combination therapy to treat patients withthe most common type of cystic fibrosis mutation.Cystic fibrosis is a progressive, life-threateningdisease that results in the formation of thickmucus that builds up in the lungs, digestive tract,and other parts of the body. This is the first treat-ment available to some cystic fibrosis patients.
A Phase 3 study is underway for a new drug totreat advance prostate cancer. Positive results sofar point to a second quarter 2020 new drug ap-plication submission to FDA.
White Oak Medical CenterConstruction activities in addition to the completed
hospital are:• Within the hospital proper construction is un-derway to provide 10 behavioral health care beds inthe south tower on the fifth floor. This should be com-plete in the late February timeframe.• The doctors' office building shell is completeand the inside is expected to be complete in the April-May timeframe.• Construction is getting underway to provide 42rehabilitation beds by completing the 6th and 7thfloors of the hospital building. Today that part of thehospital building has 5 floors. This is expected to becomplete in the Oct-Nov 2020 timeframe.• Work is progressing on the path and landscap-ing around the pond.
2020 CensusThe census is taken every 10 years and the
results impact us in many ways. One way is thatit directly determines the amount of federal fund-ing the State of Maryland will receive over thenext decade. It is predicted that each person whois not counted will mean $16,398 less in federalfunding. The census results also form the basis ofelection redistricting (federal, state and local).The census strives to count all residents, both cit-izens and non-citizens.
When it is time to respond, most householdswill receive an invitation in the mail (expect thisMarch 12-20). You can respond online (best forour area), by mail, or by phone. The initial invita-tion and reminders in March and April will notcontain the questionnaire – it is available on line.
For those who have not responded initially, apaper questionnaire will be sent and eventually afollow up will occur in person. More information isavailable athttps://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/census/.Also see the link for whom to count on your cen-sus (there are a number of situations that affectmany of us, such as college students and peoplein health care facilities).
Hillandale Transportation Issues
There were several transportation issues withthe County Department of Transportation (DOT)related to the Local Area Transportation Improve-ment Program (LATIP) projects that the devel-oper would fund and build. Shane Pollin of theDuffie Company resolved issues concerning thedesign of the expansion of Powder Mill Rd on thewest side of New Hampshire Ave.
Dan Wilhelm clarified with them about theLATIP credits and relationship to the DOT reviewof subdivision plans, which would also apply toViva White Oak and other projects in the area. Inaddition DOT has been undertaking an additionalstudy in the Hillandale area for the last year. DOTindicates the results will be available in early Jan-uary for review.
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PLEASE JOIN GCCA: The annual dues are $10.00 per person per year (June 2019 through May 2020).
Contributions are vital to GCCA’s mission of improving our Colesville community. Make checks payable to
GCCA and mail to P.O. Box 4087, Colesville, MD 20914. Or, go to greatercolesville.org and pay online.
NAME(S):__________________________________________________Area # (if known)____________
ADDRESS:_________________________________________________PHONE____________________
Dues__________ GCCA Donation___________EMAIL ADDRESS______________________________
GCCA DUES PAYMENT TIME - MEMBERSHIP IS IMPORTANT
19 Mark Pankow 908 Hobbs Dr. 703-851-1315
20 Chris Naughten 800 Midland Rd 758-3633
21 Jay Hagler 1325 Crockett Ln 240-994-8993
21 Benedict Eng 1205 Crockett Ln 240-388-6263
22 Open
23 Dan Wilhelm 904 Cannon Rd. 384-2698
24 Open
25 Ed Weiler 1008 Mondrian Terr. 236-5956
26 Beverly Roof 12928 Allerton Lane 384-7247
26 Bob Peters 1010 Cannon Rd. 384-4410
27 Open
28 Otto E. Lewis 12617 Billington Rd. 384-0567
28 George Ezikpe 1310 Leister Dr. 717-0625
29 Alcira Groomes 204 Valley Brook Dr. 625-8919
1 Fred Pulliam 144 Bonifant Rd. 602-0825
1 Deborah Pulliam 144 Bonifant Rd. 240-440-1758
2 Open
3 Marguerite Raaen 14404 Sandy Ridge 240-938-0523
3 Fred Stichnoth 14105 Cricket Ln 706-6828
4 Henry Morrow 13812 Mills Avenue 384-0827
5 Open
6 Bill Backof 13814 Shannon Drive 384-7354
7 Open
8 Open
9 Michael Persh 208 Montvale Terr 879-4560
10 Open
11 David Michaels 508 Hawkesbury Ln 240-271-4951
12 Open
13 Open
14 Robert Bartol 224 Springloch Road 622-5879
15 Ken Himes 12704 Hammonton Rd. 622-3690
16 Sharon Brown
17 Pat Corey 41 Shaw Ave 622-5339
18 Ray Rye 12820 Baker Dr. 622-2276
AREA REPRESENTATIVES NEEDED
Support your neighborhood & community
For more information, contact your Area
representative
GCCA Area Representatives (3 representatives per area)
Note: Dues paid in May 2019 will be applied to the 2019 - 2020 fiscal year.
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Greater Colesville Citizens Association
PO Box 4087
Colesville, MD 20914
PRST STDU.S. Postage
PAIDSuburban, MD
Permit No. 6511
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